‘Breakthrough’ startups reap investments from new early-stage fund

January 25, 2012 – 11:33 am by Michael Christel

Cambridge, Mass.-based Flagship Ventures recently closed the company’s largest fund to date, raising $270 million for its life sciences funds, money that will add around 20 new biotechnology companies to Flagship’s portfolio, according to officials. Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., managing partner and CEO of Flagship, answered questions from R&D Directions about the company’s latest cash infusion. [...]

Tags: biotechnology, early-stage venture capital

Posted in Uncategorized, drug discovery | No Comments »

Lifecycle modeling and simulation: poised to transform drug development

January 19, 2012 – 9:48 am by Chris

(editor’s note: this is a special guest post from Quintiles)
By Michael O’Kelly, Senior Biostatistics Director, Center for Statistics in Drug Development, Innovation, Quintiles

To build their 1903 flyer, the Wright Brothers modeled and tested wing shapes in a wind tunnel to reduce costs. A century later, 800,000 simulation hours on the Cray Supercomputer fast-forwarded the design [...]

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Survey: Lack of funds, regulatory climate threaten biomedical industry

January 13, 2012 – 4:54 pm by Michael Christel

Future growth for the biomedical industry faces growing and unprecedented threats, according to a newly released survey of CEOs from life sciences companies in California, the largest biomedical cluster in the world. The three biggest threats reported were [...]

Posted in FDA, Uncategorized, clinical trials, drug discovery | No Comments »

Biotech startup continues hot streak

January 10, 2012 – 5:50 pm by Michael Christel

If you have been following some of the buzz out of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference this week, access to traditional venture capital remains difficult for biomedical companies, particularly for biotech startups. Thus, opportunities to forge licensing agreements or corporate partnerships with large biopharma companies has become increasingly vital for startups hoping to grow their drug-discovery businesses. One company that has been aggressive in following such a formula is [...]

Tags: biotechnology, drug development alliances, drug discovery, licensing deals

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Pediatric trial education in focus

November 14, 2011 – 4:27 pm by Michael Christel

With new legislation and regulatory polices calling for more pediatric research as part of a drug-development program, the need for increased education around pediatric clinical trials is paramount. Ahead, Kathryn Bohannon, principal strategist for pediatrics at INC Research, discusses the resulting responsibility of sponsors to plan and negotiate trials for children more effectively. [...]

Tags: clinical trial regulations, INC Research, pediatric clinical trials, pediatric research

Posted in CRO, Uncategorized, clinical trials | No Comments »

African-American patient recruitment: Trust matters

November 7, 2011 – 4:22 pm by Michael Christel

Inherent in effective patient recruitment for clinical trials is gaining sufficient trust from prospective subjects, an especially important component when reaching out to African-American populations. In a guest column, Carmen Gonzalez of patient recruitment provider Healthcare Communications Group details a three-part plan on how to build trust among African-American communities that can serve as a foundation for future patient recruitment. [...]

Tags: clinical trial ethics, clinical trials, minorities, patient recruitment

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Smart pill quickens drug assessment process

October 28, 2011 – 3:56 pm by Michael Christel

In case you missed the news, there was a pretty neat technology unveiling at this week’s annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, namely a smart pill that combines electronically controlled drug delivery with patient monitoring and real-time communication with the patient. [...]

Tags: clinical research, drug delivery, smart pill technology

Posted in Uncategorized, clinical trials, drug discovery | No Comments »

PPD to be acquired by private investment company

October 4, 2011 – 2:49 pm by Colette Pilkus

Morningstar’s Lauren Migliore believes that the contract research organization industry has turned a corner, citing a resurgence in new business activity and revenue growth during the past few quarters. She notes that “the second quarter marked the first period since the beginning of the drug-development slowdown that the industry saw widespread top-line growth.�
Among [...]

Tags: CROs, PPD

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Metabolomic profiling could benefit personalized med efforts

September 12, 2011 – 4:55 pm by Michael Christel

The most extensive and comprehensive genome wide associating study ever conducted was recently published. The study found clear links between human genetic markers and diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disorders, gout, venous thromboembolism, and Crohn’s disease. We caught up with the chief scientific leader at Metabolon Inc., which helped conduct the study, to talk more about the findings and their implications for drug development. [...]

Tags: biomarkers, diagnostics, genetics, metabolomics, personalized medicine

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‘Lower costs and better outcomes are mission critical’ for sponsors

July 27, 2011 – 10:06 am by Michael Christel

We reported last week that Wendel Barr, the former chief operating officer at contract research giant Covance and 11-year executive with the company, was named CEO of Synteract, a smaller privately held CRO based in San Diego. We caught up with Mr. Barr after his move across country to talk about his first opportunity as top executive, his plans for Synteract, and the pulse of CRO clients at the moment. [...]

Tags: CRO, hirings, Synteract

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